James Smith (19th century)
James Smith (10 February 1775 - 24 December 1839) was an English poet who wrote humorous light and nonsense verse. Life Overview The Smith brothers, Horace and James (1775-1839), were sons of a London lawyer who was solicitor to the Board of Ordnance. James succeeded his father. Both brothers were distinguished for brilliant wit and humor. Their 1st great hit was Rejected Addresses (1812), extremely clever parodies on leading contemporary poets. To this jeu d'esprit James contributed among others imitations of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Crabbe. James published little more, but anonymously gave Charles Matthews assistance in his entertainments. Both brothers were highly esteemed not only for their social qualities, but for their benevolence and goodness of heart.John William Cousin, "Smith, Horace," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 347-348. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 2, 2018. Youth and education Smith, born in London on 10 February 1775, was the elder brother of Horace Smith. Like his brother, he received his education at Chigwell, but, instead of being sent to business, entered his father's office and succeeded him as solicitor to the board of ordnance in 1812. Adult life Like Horace, James greatly preferred theatrical and literary amusement to the dry details of business, but, like him too gave business an attention particularly exemplary under the circumstances, and eventually attained considerable eminence in his profession.Garnett, 57. Universally known, and everywhere socially acceptable, "he wanted," says his brother, "all motive for further and more serious exertion." He produced, however, the text for Charles Mathews's comic entertainments, The Country Cousins, The Trip to France, The Trip to America (1820–2), and the 2 latter brought him in 1,000l. "James Smith," said Mathews, "is the only man who can write clever nonsense."Garnet, 58. His reputation rather rested upon his character as a wit and diner-out; most of the excellent things attributed to him, however, were, in the opinion of his biographer in the Law Magazine, impromptus faits à loisir. John Keats, after dining with both the Smiths and their friends, left with a conviction of the superiority of humor to wit. James Smith, nevertheless, was a general favorite, and tempered his powers of sarcasm with much good nature. He was less genial than his brother, "circumscribed in the extent of his information, and, as a natural consequence, more concentrated in himself," says a writer in the New Monthly Magazine. When in his office "he looked as serious as the parchments surrounding him." He died, unmarried, at his house in Craven Street, Strand, on 24 December 1839, and was buried in the vaults of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. Writing His 1st production was a hoax, being a series of letters descriptive of alleged natural phenomena which imposed upon the Gentleman's Magazine. He was closely connected with his brother in his literary undertakings, writing in particular the larger and better portion of the metrical imitations of Horace, which appeared in Thomas Hill's Monthly Mirror, and were subsequently collected and published under the title of Horace in London (1813). To the Rejected Addresses (1812) he contributed Nos. 2, 5, 7, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18. In the Rejected Addresses the best parodies were those of Cobbett and Crabbe, and were the work of James Smith, who also wrote the hardly less successful parodies of Wordsworth and Southey.Richard Garnett, "Smith, Horatio," Dictionary of National Biography 53 (edited by Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1898, 53-54. Wikisource, Web, Nov. 27, 2016. James Smith's contributions to these famous parodies were perhaps the best, though not the most numerous, but he appeared contented with the celebrity they had brought him, and never again produced anything considerable.Garmett. 58. He also produced much comic verse and prose for periodicals, not generally of a very high order, but occasionally including an epigram turned with point and neatness. His ‘Comic Miscellanies’ were edited in 1840, with a memoir, by his brother (London, 2 vols. 12mo). Recognition A portrait by Lonsdale was bequeathed by him to the Torrholme family. Smith also figures in the ‘Maclise Portrait Gallery’ (ed. Bates, p. 277). References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 2, 2018. Notes External links ;Books * * [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3769 Rejected Addresses by Horace Smith and James Smith, from Project Gutenberg] 'About * Smith, James (1775-1839) {[[Category:Writers from London] Category:English satirists Category:1775 births Category:1839 deaths Category:English male writers Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Humorous poets Category:Poets